Ultimate bobbin

[poledark]

Copied and pasted,

 

This is a picture of the biggest bream ever caught by design, weighing in at a huge 18lb 12oz.

 

Taken by Dai Gribble during a three-night stint at a southern pit, the giant specimen was the pick of a superb five-fish catch which also included a 15lb 8oz bream and three others over 12lb.

 

The 44-year-old Environment Agency officer and Korum consultant banked his new personal best on the second night of his stay, after first baiting his swim with a mix of groundbait, pellets, stewed wheat and a few hookbait samples.

 

Although there have been two bigger bream banked in the past, namely James Rust’s 19lb 10oz British record and Mark Neal’s 18lb 15oz 3dr specimen, both those anglers admitted they were targeting carp at the time.

 

It marks a fantastic start to the new campaign for Dai, who recently finished third in the 2007/08 Drennan Cup.

 

“At 2.30am the bobbin started dancing up and down and I was on it in a flash. I could tell it was an above-average fish from its sheer dead weight,” he said.

 

The capture is testament to Dai’s meticulous approach to finding suitable ‘clear spots’ on which to present his baits at the weedy venue. Using a boat and glass-bottomed bucket to scour an area over 100yds from the bank, Dai settled on a 6ft wide gravel seam in 12ft of water.

 

“Bream hate pushing through weed, so when I found this clean area I knew I was in with a chance,” said Dai, who also believes his reluctance to include more than a handful of hookbait samples was key to his success.

 

“I only ever scatter a few around the area because I want the fish to home in on them. I’m convinced this makes all the difference – it’s like offering them smoked salmon instead of sausage rolls!” he added.

 

Staffs-based Dai, who is no stranger to big bream, having banked them to 17lb 6oz last summer, took all his fish on 10mm Tutti Frutti-flavoured paste-wrapped boilies made by Sonubaits, tipped with red artificial corn. He presented these on 4ins nylon hooklinks and size 10 Korum S3 hooks.

 

" thats the way to do it" :)

 

Den

[tincatinca]

Budgie, I will try again

 

www.gofishing.co.uk/news/News-Search-Results

 

Doesn't want to work I googled for big bream and found this site and there is a piece by an EA man called Dai who has had some whoppers, 10mm Tutti frutti topped with corn, and short 4" hooklengths.

 

Can I copy and paste or is there a copyright issue?

 

Den

Is this the article Den

http://www.gofishing.co.uk/news/News-Searc...aken-by-design/

[tincatinca]

Is this the article Den

http://www.gofishing.co.uk/news/News-Searc...aken-by-design/

 

I see you have already pasted it

[poledark]

Is this the article Den

http://www.gofishing.co.uk/news/News-Searc...aken-by-design/

 

 

Yep, thats the one

 

Den

[tincatinca]

Im going to make no appologies as its inevitable this thread and the bream one were going to "merge"!

 

Phill and Tincas posts have raised a very interesting point.Could it be that Anderoos theories (see bream thread) on SB's being semi resident in swims/areas be true and thats why only a percentage of a waters SB's are ever caught? ie that the uncaught ones are simply never in any of the areas the anglers fish/can fish? Areas like this could most likely exist on waters of the size we are discussing?

 

Not saying I agree/believe either just chucking up another possibility.

 

I personally think that there is a lot in this. Not neccessarily being semi resident in certain swims but following different patrol routes relative to prevailing conditions at the time. I also still believe that the effects of undertow are a major factor.

Edited March 29, 2009 by tincatinca

[lutra]

I did, the bobbin rose slowly to the rod and by the time it had got there I was standing next to it. I must have stood there for two full minutes waiting for it to either fall back (liner) or for the baitrunner to start clicking away (run). But all that happened was the rod tip was gently knocking, so in the end I risked it and pulled into the fish, which luckily was on the other end after all. As you say, no need to 'strike', it was already hooked and was obviously just sitting there shaking its head trying to throw the hook.

How long was your hook length Anderoo?

 

I think Ive said somewhere before that in my experience if you are going to fish bolt rig for good bream its best to keep it to a max of a 4" hook length. I think this stops them from dropping back level after standing on there heads to pick up your bait without picking up your feeder/lead and this is more likely to make them run.

[tincatinca]

I personally think that there is a lot in this. Not neccessarily being semi resident in certain swims but following different patrol routes relative to prevailing conditions at the time. I also still believe that the effects of undertow are a major factor.

 

Apologies Andrew, should have fully read the post correctly as of course being semi resident in certain swims/areas equates to part of a patrol route

[Anderoo]

Thanks for that Den, very interesting! I agree, that's the way to do it.

 

The semi-resident theory is still the one that makes most sense to me, when all the info we have is taken into account. That's why I'm exploring new areas this season. There have been several recaptures of the 'smaller'(!) bream, but I'm convinced that there are several fish which have never even seen a hookbait. Not necessarily at range, either.

 

Take almost any acre you like at Wingham and you'll find depths from 2' to 12'+, shelter from any wind direction and undertow in the form of bars and/or margins, masses of natural food, gravel, silt, you name it. A couple of monster bream could easily satify their natural wandering instincts and have a very easy life in a couple of acres easily, whatever the conditions.

 

I'm sure they cover pretty much all the lake at some point, but I reckon (from the data we have which, admittedly, isn't that much!) for long periods they don't move around like we're told they do. Maybe that's a bit of truth from the meres that doesn't apply to gravel pits?

 

Where they are in that, say, two acres, would be determined by prevailing conditions (temperature, wind speed and direction, undertow, and presence of weed), as with any fishing.

 

It's a fact that a fair few bream have been caught more than once and others have never been caught, and you have to ask why...

 

Could it also be that some of them would never pick up a boilie or pellet, but would sip in a couple of maggots?

[Anderoo]

How long was your hook length Anderoo?

 

I think Ive said somewhere before that in my experience if you are going to fish bolt rig for good bream its best to keep it to a max of a 4" hook length. I think this stops them from dropping back level after standing on there heads to pick up your bait without picking up your feeder/lead and this is more likely to make them run.

 

It was about 3-4" lutra, with a 2oz inline lead. Just one of those wierd things I guess! I'm sure it's very atypical. I was in a massive quandry as you can imagine

 

When it was under the rod tip (and I was a complete shaky mess) it hung there for a while, slowly and strongly shaking its head from side to side. That's what I reckon it was doing after it was hooked.

 

I reckon that because of the way they feed, tipping up and then righting themselves with nearly every mouthful, any sensible bolt-type rig will hook a bream with no problem. Unlike tench, which can stay vertical for ages, hardly moving. I do prefer short hooklengths for all the obvious reasons, but if I had to use one of 10" for these big bream I wouldn't lose too much sleep. From reading about the mere and queenford boys in the 80s and 90s, it sounds like bream hang on to a bait for ages anyway, even with running rigs. I reckon for tench it does pay to get things just right, but bream, not so much.

[tincatinca]

Could it also be that some of them would never pick up a boilie or pellet, but would sip in a couple of maggots?

 

That is a very valid question but one I think that would be extremely difficult to quantify taking everything else into consideration

As with all specimen fishing, the first thing is to put the bait where the fish are and herein lies the big poser i.e. which particular acre and whereabouts within that acre but then again is this is what makes it all so fascinating as well as frustrating. I totally agree with you that you also need a big slice of luck and any success on a water such as Wingham is a huge achievment. Working on the theory that fish are semi resident to certain swims is similar to the approach that was taken at Cop Mere the only thing being that like Wingham you had to spend an entity waiting for the fish to appear with the difference being that anywhere on Cop Mere was accessable by boat then fishing the markers but which one. On the other hand, Ladyluck could make a sudden appearance but how often does this happen.